Driver Safety Education Blog

Distracted Driving legislation is coming to Alberta this fall. It's about time. The wait will be worth it because it not only addresses cell phone use while driving but many other distractions as well. Here is an Edmonton Sun article reporting the progress.
From the Alberta Safety Council we have this report called, Bill 16 - Distracted Driving Legislation. Have a look at the Frequently Asked Questions, appearing just below the article. The FAQ links will take you to this page at Alberta Transportation.

Much has been written or said about cell phone use and the following story says it again.

Distracted driver hits stroller in a crosswalk. He admits he was using a cell phone.
Read more at this page: http://www.ksl.com/?sid=10647204&nid=148

And this story...

Distracted driver killed Alberta teen. An excerpt from the CBC article, "According to the report, a witness said the driver was seen texting on her cellphone as she got out of her car."
"The driver of the passenger vehicle [the Civic] did not even know that she had crushed a landscape worker," the report says. "There were no visible skid marks from the passenger vehicle. This indicated that the passenger vehicle's driver did not attempt to stop before the crash." Here is the CBC article. Here is a link to the Edmonton Journal article.
UPDATE: June 24, 2010 -- Driver pleads guilty to careless driving. See the article here.

Here is an article from Science Daily about another distracted driver study. Here is an excerpt from the webpage. "Human factors researchers test drivers to measure the risks of driving while distracted. The researchers control the environment by adding turns and changing road conditions, all the while measuring the driver’s performance. They use brain wave patterns and heart activity to study the drivers’ attention when behind the wheel."
http://www.sciencedaily.com/videos/2008/0104-driver_distraction.htm

Alberta RCMP warn drivers as this article reports.

There are thousands of examples of distracted drivers injuring and killing people. Changing their lives, and those around them, forever.

It is time these kind of preventable accidents stop.

Safe driving...

Cheers - Mike

Have you ever had a driving or walking experience and something happened where you could have been injured or killed?

Did you think about it? Did you change you driving or walking habit in some way? Did you just carry on like nothing happened?

Well, Here is a video of actual driving/pedestrian near-misses. I often wonder how a near-miss affects drivers or passengers or pedestrians. Well, this driver had nightmares afterword. Read the whole news story here. Mark Jespersen was quoted in part, "I had nightmares about it last night," Jesperson said Friday. "Where the accident was, that guy didn't have a hope, coming over a hill. I was blessed to have some reaction time, and that I was paying attention.". The article also said, "He didn't realize how close he had come to tragedy until he learned later the van had slammed into another pickup truck two kilometres down the road, killing the driver.".

http://www.flixxy.com/lucky-day.htm

It doesn't have to be another driver. It could be a very large animal on the highway, as the following report illustrates.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/newfoundland-labrador/story/2009/05/27/moose-near-miss-527.html

Perhaps you won't be lucky all the time - think about it.

Stay aware. Stay focused. Stay safe.

Safe driving...

Cheers - Mike